She had never seen anyone like Hannah.

Hannah was beautiful, but kind. Intelligent, but shy.

She spent most of her time at the library or at home.

Occasionally, El would visit her, but El was nervous that she'd make her upset.

Today, El visited her.

She looked more tired and anxious than usual when she answered the door.

"Yes?"

El waved with a smile. Truly, Hannah was the only one who made her happy. "I came to see you."

Hannah managed a weak smile in response and opened the door wider. El walked in and then swept Hannah into her arms.

Hannah gasped. "Wha---?"

"What's wrong?" El asked and carried her to her room.

Hannah clutched El's overalls. "Please be careful."

El nodded and opened the door to Hannah's room. That was really difficult. She set Hannah on her bed.

Hannah crossed her hands in her lap. El sat next to her. "So, what is wrong?"

Hannah flopped back on the bed and covered her face. El laid with her.

"My parents. . ." Hannah trailed off. "They. . .want to divorce."

El stuttered, unsure as to how to continue. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Are you okay?’

’I think so,’ Hannah said, slowly. ‘I don’t think it’s set in just yet.’

”Have they…gotten a lawyer?”

Hannah shook her head. “Not yet. I don’t even know if Mum’s moving out.”

”Do you think she will?”

Hannah swallowed. “Maybe.”

El voiced her fears. “Will you have to move?”

Hannah’s voice cracked. “I’m not sure, El.”

El looked at her friend, laying across her bed, about to cry and knew she had to do something. She grabbed Hannah’s hand and dragged her out of the room.

“Come on. We’re getting icecream so we can talk about this properly.”

El handed Hannah her cone and then took her own. They wandered around a little while before they found a bench.

"Even if I have to move," Hannah started quietly, "I'll still be in contact with you."

It was selfish, El knew, but she couldn't stand the thought of not being physically near Hannah.

"It'll be okay," El said. "I'll do anything for you."

Hannah looked up, then leaned her head on El's shoulder. "You're the best, you know that?"

El sighed. "No one's better than you."

They sat for a while, enjoying their ice cream cones. Then El got an idea. A terribly reckless but wonderful idea.

"We could run away."

Hannah looked up, but it wasn't in a 'you're crazy' way. More of 'could we really'.

"You think so?" she asked.

El nodded. "I've read up a bunch on survival, and I know a ton about the wilds. My dad taught me a lot of stuff."

Hannah, for the first time that day, cracked a small smile. "I'd like that."

She rested her head back on El's shoulder.

It was reckless, it was stupid, and it was going to be hard.

But El's plan just might work.

They walked home slowly, the last of the ice cream melting down their fingers. Hannah kept brushing her sleeve across her eyes, as if she could wipe away the day itself.

El stayed close—not touching, not pushing, just there. A steady presence. A gravity.

When they reached Hannah’s street, the sky had already begun to bruise purple. Hannah hesitated at the gate.

“El,” she said quietly, “were you serious? About running away?”

El felt her heart thump once, hard. “Yeah. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

Hannah looked at her for a long moment. Not scared. Not confused. Just… searching.

“Where would we go?”

El hadn’t expected her to ask that. She swallowed. “There’s a forest past the old quarry. Miles of it. Dad used to take me camping there. I know where the streams are, and the caves, and the places people don’t go.”

Hannah’s breath hitched. “Caves?”

“Not scary ones,” El said quickly. “Just… quiet. Safe.”

Hannah nodded, though her fingers twisted in her sleeves. “I don’t want to be here when they start shouting again.”

That did it. Something fierce and protective rose in El’s chest.

“Then you won’t be,” she said. “Not if you don’t want to.”

Hannah looked down at her shoes. “It sounds impossible.”

“Most good things do.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke. The street was silent except for the wind nudging the hedges.

Then Hannah whispered, “What would we take?”

El blinked. “You’re… actually considering it?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah said, voice trembling. “But thinking about it makes me feel like I can breathe again.”

El stepped closer, lowering her voice. “We’d need food. Water bottles. A blanket. A torch. Maybe a map. And—”

“And my books,” Hannah said immediately.

El laughed softly. “Of course your books.”

Hannah’s smile flickered. “And your overalls. You can’t run away without them.”

“Obviously.”

They stood there, suspended between childhood and something else entirely.

“El,” Hannah said, “if we did this… would you stay with me? Even if it got hard?”

El didn’t hesitate. “I’d stay with you even if the world fell apart.”

Hannah’s eyes shone, and she reached out, taking El’s hand with a kind of desperate gentleness.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Then… maybe we should plan.”

El squeezed her hand. “Tomorrow. After school. My place.”

Hannah nodded, exhaling shakily. “Tomorrow.”

As El walked home, she felt the weight of what she’d promised settle on her shoulders—not heavy, but solid. Real.

Reckless. Stupid. Hard.

But for the first time, the idea didn’t feel like a fantasy.